


Family First

by popatochisp



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Family, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Platonic Relationships, Protectiveness, Underfell Mettaton (Undertale), Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underfell Sans (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:48:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popatochisp/pseuds/popatochisp
Summary: Papyrus was your family.Anyone who messed with him ended up on your shit-list pretty damn quick.





	Family First

You’d never before felt such a  _powerful_  combination of fury and pity.

The pity was for Papyrus, demolishing an entire quart of ice cream with the kind of ferocity you normally only saw from wild dogs.

The fury, well…

“WHO THE  _FUCK_  DOES HE THINK HE IS, ANYWAY?!” Papyrus demands, practically shivving the rocky road with his spoon. “‘DETRACT FROM HIS IMAGE’?! I WOULD  _ENHANCE_  HIS STUPID FUCKING IMAGE, HOW  _DARE_  HE…”

You lose yourself in fantasy for a moment, one where you solve this problem the way you knew monsters solved everything Underground: barging right in and tearing limb from limb from limb…from limb.

Mettaton had quite a few of  _those_ for you to work with.

You make your way over to the couch, instead, sitting down next to Papyrus. Instantly, he holds the tub of ice cream closer defensively, glaring at you.

“I’M NOT SHARING, YOU MOOCH,” he snaps at you, but you raise your hands in surrender.

“All yours, Pap,” you promise, which gets you a suspicious look.

That was fair enough: any other day, you’d be making a game out of stealing stuff right out of his claws, teasing him for his temper, playfully bopping him on the nasal ridge with his own spoon…

Papyrus allowed it, albeit with poor grace. Somewhere along the way, you’d become family to the skeletons that lived in this house, finding them rough around the edges but with genuine hearts of gold somewhere in there, deep, deep down.

Pap was like a little brother to you and you’re pretty sure he feels it too, or else you probably wouldn’t get away with  _half_  as much affectionate harassment as you do, levels rivaled only by Sans himself.

But today was different.

Today a shitty, trashcan robot had shot down your Papy’s hopes of being cast in his next gory, glitter-soaked melodrama and you were  _pissed_.

“You bought the rocky road,” you say, “you deserve to eat it. Seriously, it’s all yours.”

Papyrus is just a little too sharp to fall for that, of course. “ARE YOU PITYING ME?” he demands, imperiously.

_Yes._  

“What? No!”

He puffs up a little, indignant rage squaring his shoulders and making his red eyes  _blaze_. 

If you didn’t know him so well, you’d  _definitely_ be intimidated.

“DON’T YOU  _DARE_  PITY ME, HUMAN,” he growls, “OR I’LL—”

“Papyrus, seriously,  _no_ , I’m not pitying you!” You scoff, shaking your head. “Why the hell would I pity  _you_? Mettatrash is the one who lost out today.”

“……EXPLAIN.”

“Dude, you’re a  _great_  actor. You know it, I know it, and I guarantee you  _he_  knows it.”

Papyrus frowns. “THEN WHY—”

“‘cause he  _sucks_! Do you have any idea how hard you’d upstage him if he let you anywhere  _near_ him on-set? I know you like the guy—”

“LIES!”

“—but he’s a shitty actor when you get right down to it. He’s all flash and no substance!  _You’re_  the whole package! A couple years from now, you’re going to be  _glad_  his garbage isn’t in your repertoire, it ages like  _milk_! You remember ‘Attack of The Killer Robot From Planet Loveulon,’ don’t you?”

Papyrus shudders. “UGH. THAT  _WAS_  BAD…”

“Exactly!” You gently smack his shoulder. “Forget about that prick and whatever excuses he made up to get you to leave. He  _wishes_  he had half your talent.”

It was a pep-talk, but you really  _did_ believe every word. Papyrus played a mean villain, a calloused general, an uncaring brother, when behind closed doors it couldn’t be further from the truth—his acting skills were top-notch, really and truly  _superb_!

He was so good that when you’d walked into the room, you almost hadn’t seen the hastily concealed tear-tracks streaking down his skull.

_Almost_.

“Hey,” you say to him, putting on your absolute most serious face. “Do you want me to kick his ass for you?”

Papyrus snorts. “ _EXCUSE_  ME?”

“I’ll do it, man,” you insist. “I’ll kick his ass if you want me to.”

“………NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH! YOU  _MUST_  BE JOKING,” Papyrus cackles, practically in hysterics from the very idea. “A WEAK LITTLE HUMAN LIKE  _YOU_?! IF ANYONE’S GOING TO BE KICKING ANYONE’S ASS, IT WILL BE THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!”

“Whose ass? Yours?”

“I—WHAT?! NO! WHY WOULD I KICK MY OWN ASS?! NYEEEEH, HUMAN, YOU ARE UTTERLY INFURIATING SOMETIMES, I SW— _GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY ROCKY ROAD!_ ”

Papyrus shoves you for your all-too-ambitious bid for his ice cream and you topple off the couch with a laugh.

You have to admit, he’s probably right about you trying to fight Mettaton: you can’t even steal your bratty pseudo-sib’s ice cream without getting caught, you’d  _never_  be able to get all the way through MTT’s security to make some scrap metal, no matter how much you wanted to.

Luckily, you’d already sent a text to somebody who  _could._

**You:** The rocky road’s out, might want to pay the tin-can a visit.

**You:**  Make him cry.

**Red-Hot:**  with pleasure, keep the home fires burnin ;p

You can handle that much, at least.

_Nobody_  fucks with your family and gets away with it.

**Author's Note:**

> Posting some drabbles of mine separately just because! Originally from my collection, Bag of Bones, where this and the rest of my drabbles so far can be found.
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


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